The Blog of Ian Pace, pianist, musicologist, political animal. A place for thoughts, reflections, links, both trivial and not so trivial. Main website is at http://www.ianpace.com . Contact e-mail ian@ianpace.com.

Here is the transcript of this interview – in no way should police investigations be held back because they involve prominent politicians.

TRANSCRIPTION OF THE INTERVIEW:

SIMON DANCZUK – RADIO INTERVIEW – MAY 3rd 2014

Simon Danczuk: Within a day or two of that book being published, a detective from one of the polices forces in the UK got in touch with us to say could they meet to discuss an investigation that they’re involved in. We responded to that and arranged to meet on Friday afternoon in my constituency office. Three officers came up to see us – quite senior officers – detectives.

Inerviewer: We can’t name anyone but are you able to give me an indication of what kind of case it was and who … what type of person was involved?

SD: It involved a senior Labour figure and I would decribe it as very ‘aggressive abuse of boys’; you know, quite clearly predatory – they are the allegations. They are of extreme significance and I know from speaking to the officers that they are taking them extremely seriously and want to pursue a case.

Interviewer: It is important to point out that these are allegations.

SD: Yeh

Interviewer: It’s an on-going investigation. Can you just tell me why you think that those police officers came to you.

SD: I think they came to see us to see whether there were any connections between these two senior politicians but also to discuss the politics of dealing with a case like this. Errr….. so I think they had some concerns, and quite undertandable ones. As you get to know the police – as a politician myself – you understand that they are (quite rightly) cautious about dealing with anything that has a political dimension. And I think they are cautious about this particular case that they are investigating because it IS because it is someone who has been involved in politics for a long time and they’re …… they’re probably worried about rocking the boat to some extent.

Interviewer: Obviously the police officers discussed with you these allegations.

SD: Mmm

Interviewer: We can’t talk about those. But I want to ask what you rreaction was when you heard them.

SD: I anticipated that we would write this book and we were conscious that it may have an impact in terms of what Smith had done and everything around it … and probably some fall-out from the Liberal Party. But I didn’t anticipate quite this sort of response where we end up speaking to a number of police officers from different forces across the country about allegations against other Parliamentarians. And I think we are getting to a stage where a number of disparate police investigations, going on, up and down the United Kingdom which I would have thought now need bringing into a more sophisticated way because, surely, if we are talking about a number of Parliamentarians across political parties, surely, it should be investigated in a smarter way and it should be well resourced I would think.
I am working with a number of politicians, Parliamentarians, MPs… errr.. on a letter that is going to the Home Secretary, which is urging her to make all evidence available in relation to some of these allegations.

Interviewer: How many MPs are involved in that group?

SD: Well, well, there are four of us and we’ve met as a group. It is a cross-party group. Everyone in the group is keen to …errr… to ensure that, you know, that the authorities cooperate with these types of investigations. So we are writing to the Home Secretary to urge her and to publish and make available all the documentation that relates to all the allgations agains all the Parliamentarians and others that are being accused of these terrible abuses.

Interviewer: You seem to have opened a can of worms. At least you seem to have heard more than you probably bargained for haven’t you?

SD: Yeh. Well…. I never came into politics to examine the issue of child abuse. It’s sort of been pushed upon me. It has quite a strong… quite a strong… impact. One of the other Officers asked a few days ago if we receive any support. Psychological support for the sort of stuff we examine – and the answer is that we DON’T. But [laughter] perhaps that would be useful, I don’t know. But it is harrowing listening to some of the stories. But I make this point – it is never as harrowing as what the victims have been through. We have regulat conversations with people who have ended up on drugs – yer know – it’s really, really ruined their lives. We hear about people who have committed suicide. So when people say, “Oh these…….errr……. victims are coming forward to try to get some sort of compensation”, let me tell yer… [SD breaks down in tears completely] …. all the money in the world – err – wouldn’t – err [sorry]

Interviewer: That’s alright Simon. I know it is really harrowing. Are you okay?